Anyone know how much time would be required, or how much a consultant might cost, to produce a marine benthic habitat map of an area of 30,000 km2 using LiDAR data?
Many thanks
The only 2 groups that i know that can do this are government groups. One is federal and the other is state funded through a university. Both use a IR laser for above water LiDAR mapping and a green laser for LiDAR bathymetry. The federal program is under the US Army Corps of Engineers under the program JALBTCX. This group maps the US coast both above water and below. The green laser they use has the most penetrating power but has limitations depending on the turbidity of the water and depth needed to accurately map. For actual depths and pricing you will have to check in with this group at: https://jalbtcx-live.azurewebsites.net/contact
The 2nd group is at the University of Texas at Austin. The green laser they have is not as powerful but may be sufficient for your project depending on again the depth and turbidity of the water in your research area. Here is the contact information:
Kutalmis Saylam
Email: [email protected]
512 471-1871
Both groups are capable of covering the area you want but it will be expensive. Depending on the level of detail or point density of your research area will be a key factor in the total cost and time to complete the LiDAR scan. Location is also a big factor if outside of the US the price will be much more. Both groups use fixed wing aircraft. If you do your own LiDAR processing the cost may be reduced. On some LiDAR scanning projects the cost may be shared if it is done as a joint research project. Hope this helps you find an answers to your question on the cost and time required.
PS. I forgot to add you may be able do bathymetry with out green laser LiDAR if you can see through the water clearly to the bottom. In this case a drone using photogrammetry will do the job at a fraction of the cost. Not sure if using drone/photogrammetry will work for your research area?
Very interesting, thank you, actually we already have Lidar data we just need someone to process it to produce the map so we can ground truth it.
If your data was acquired using a Leica/AHAB unit then Kutalmis Saylam or people in his group may be able to help you as they are one of only a few that have experience in classifying large scale bathymetry LIDAR data. If your data came from a different LIDAR unit I would recommend asking the manufacturer for a suggested service bureau to help you. I did this kind of work over 5 years ago and it is not easy. Even though the field is growing not many have this specific expertise. Have you considered doing it yourself?
What is your habitat scheme? Number of habitat types? Research questions for the map? Minimum mapping unit?
Once you lay that out it could take a day or a month to produce.
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